One Last Chance
by sponsormusings
Summary: As for the feeling pretty part…well that was another thing entirely. Because tonight Katniss planned to tell Peeta that she liked him. Tell him that the almost-kiss they'd shared the weekend before had kept her up every night this week, cursing the 'what if'. Tonight, she felt, was her do or die night, her last chance.


_A submission for Prompts in Panem, March/April 2015. Day 1 - Cheeks._

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She stared impatiently out the window, at the last vestiges of sunlight dancing through the trees that lined the end of Capitol Drive. Normally, Katniss Everdeen would try and appreciate the sight - Peeta had taught her a long time ago that sometimes it _was_ worth it to just stop and appreciate those normal, everyday things - but she couldn't right now, not when he was late. 15 minutes late, to be exact, and he was never, _ever_ late. Which meant Peeta was either stuck at the bakery, he'd fallen asleep after his shift, or he was bailing.

She could handle the first two options. But the third?

_He'd better damn well not be bailing._

Nervously lifting a hand, she went to tug on the end of her braid before her fingers slid through thin air and she remembered it wasn't there; instead she had to settle for smoothing her hair back over her shoulder. In place of her usual braid, Prim had insisted she let her curl it, and it now swung around her in long, black, voluminous waves. It was pretty, she'd begrudgingly admitted, but not entirely practical.

Which was _exactly _the point, Prim had told her with a self-important 14 year old know-it-all roll of her eyes. "_Practical is meant for biology class and working at the campgrounds, not your high school graduation party,_" Prim had informed her matter-of-factly, and for once Katniss hadn't argued. Because, as much as she hated to admit it, she kind of liked the idea of being pretty tonight.

The party itself, she didn't really particularly care about. She was only going because Madge and Peeta, her two best friends, were. And because they were all off to different colleges - or at least, that's where Madge and Peeta were going - they'd insisted she go, one last hurrah for the three of them together, so to speak. So she'd agreed, albeit reluctantly, because they'd had a point.

But as for the feeling pretty part…well that was another thing entirely. Because tonight she planned to tell Peeta that she liked him. Tell him that the almost-kiss they'd shared the weekend before out at the lake while Gale and Madge had been grabbing ice-creams had kept her up every night this week, cursing the _what if_. She was going to tell him that she'd liked him for longer than she cared to admit, liked him a lot more than she ever thought she'd ever like anyone. Tonight, she felt, was her do or die night, her last chance. If he _had _bailed, or if she left it any later, she wasn't sure she'd ever get to tell him, and then she'd probably lose him to some dumb college bimbo.

She hated that non-existent bitch already.

Glancing down at her watch again, she sighed, leant forward and rested her head against the window frame. If he wasn't here in the next 5 minutes, she was scrubbing off this stupid makeup, stripping off, changing into her sweats and hunkering down in the living room with Netflix. And if Madge got pissed at her for not showing up, then she could blame it all on-

Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw twin lights flash down the street, and Peeta's old second-hand Jeep pulled sharply into the driveway. "About damn time," she muttered, snatching her purse from the sofa and heading for the front door. Butterflies filled her stomach as she locked the door behind her, then leapt down the three front steps in one go.

"Late much?" She greeted as she yanked on the door handle on the passenger side and slid into the seat, her nervousness overriding any pleasantries.

"Sorry," he apologised. "I got caught up."

Katniss slammed the door closed before snapping on her belt. "Closing the bakery?"

"Something like that." He changed gears, putting the car into reverse, before backing down the driveway and turning out onto the street. "Nice hair."

She rolled her eyes, even while his words made her heart skip a beat. "Shut up."

"I'm being serious!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Flicking on the radio to buy herself some time - she told herself she couldn't just blurt it out to him immediately - Katniss turned the dial until she found Bruno Mars, left it at a level where she could still hear Peeta over the music as they spoke. "Anyway how _is_ your mom and douche stepdad going to survive at the bakery when you go off to college? With all three boys out of the house now, they're actually going to have to do some work."

"Who knows," Peeta replied, his hands gripping the steering wheel as he cruised around the next corner. "I'll just be glad to not have to wake up at 4.30am every day anymore."

Katniss snorted and glanced across at him. _How, for so many years, had she never noticed how elegant and strong his profile was? Why now, when in a matter of weeks, he was going to be living an hour away instead of 5 minutes?_ "So is that why you're wearing sunglasses at night, Cool Shit? To hide your bags from your lack of beauty sleep?"

She saw his cheek twitch as he fought back a smile. "Maybe I'm just practicing for my impending College Asshole phase."

"Haha," Katniss retorted, drew her legs up to her chest, her heels of her flats resting on the edge of her seat. She didn't think Peeta would ever be able to pull off being an asshole. He was too good, too caring, too…well, everything. _Oh god, how was she going to tell him? _"But seriously, you should take the glasses off. How can you even see to drive?"

"It's not dark yet."

"The sun has set."

"Only just. I'm _fine_, I can see."

Katniss hissed out her annoyance. _Why was he being so stubborn about this? They were just stupid sunglasses, and he didn't look the slightest bit cool in them anyway._ "Peeta, just take them off already."

He sighed, he fingers clenching tightly around the steering wheel. "I don't want to." He said the words as if each one was separated by a full stop, his voice firm and sharp.

"Why not? You're going to have to take them off at the party." She tucked her arms around her legs, her lips firming together in frustration; his sudden change in demeanour surprised her. "Look, if you don't take them off, Peeta, I'll take them off for you."

"Katniss, just fucking quit bothering me about it!" He snapped, and the sudden bitterness in his tone sliced through her; her mouth dropped open in shock. In all the years she'd known him, he'd never _once_ spoken to her like that.

Her shoulders drew together in indignation, and she dropped her feet back to the floor with a thud. "What bug crawled up your ass, Mellark?" She snarled. "I knew I should have grabbed a ride with Madge. Maybe you should take me home if you're going to be a legit asshole tonight and not just a fake college one."

"Maybe I should."

Her hand reached out, pushed him in the shoulder. "What the _hell_ is going on?"

With a swift jerk of the wheel, Peeta pulled over to the side of the road, switched off the ignition and yanked the sunglasses off, flinging them onto the back seat. The sudden silence was startling, nothing but Peeta's heavy and erratic breathing breaking the quiet. "_This_ is what's going on," he finally bit out, pointing angrily at his left eye as he turned in his seat to face her; Katniss inhaled sharply. Instead of just seeing the eyes that were almost - if not more - familiar than her own, she was staring at one that was blooming black and blue and purple. His eyelid was already swelling, and she could see the odd beige discolouration that told her he'd tried to cover most of it with some kind of makeup before giving up.

"Peeta, oh my god…" she breathed, her hand reaching up towards his face. He jerked back, the edge of his shoulder hitting the window behind him, and her hand dropped limply to her lap instead.

"Happy now?" he muttered, and she hated hearing the catch in his voice.

"I didn't know," she said, swallowing heavily. "How could I? I thought…"

"Thought what?"

"I thought she'd stopped," she said quietly. All thoughts of telling him how she felt fled; instead she was filled with a myriad of anger, sadness, shock, disbelief.

Peeta spat the words out as though they tasted like dirt. "Mostly, she did."

Katniss felt the anger surge even more within her, felt her blood boil until she was sure it was burning in her veins. She'd been friends with Peeta since the day the two of them and Madge had been grouped together on a science project in 6th grade; it had been six months before she'd seen the first bruise, and had had to wait another six before he finally admitted where they came from. When he'd told her how, at ten and still dealing with the aftermath of his father's unexpected death, he'd suddenly also had to deal with a mother who started to punish - harshly, bitterly, angrily - with her hands.

Deliah Mellark was the nastiest piece of work Katniss had ever met in her life, and it killed her that even after all these years, she was still laying her hands on her youngest son.

"Why?" she murmured, fighting to keep her voice level. "What excuse did she come up with?"

"Same as most other times," he replied, his shoulders beginning to slump. "I didn't close out the bakery good enough for her. She caught me off guard with the rolling pin, told me I was worthless, that I was no good, that in six months I'd come grovelling back from college because I was a failure."

"Your mom is full of shit," Katniss said forcefully. "Turn the car around, take me to the bakery. I'm going to give her what for."

"No," he snapped, straightening in his seat and shaking his head. "You're not going near her, I won't let you."

"I don't want her near _you_," she snapped back. "You're my best friend, Peeta, and I hate seeing what she does to you. Why did you tell Madge and I that she'd stopped if she hadn't?!" _That's_ what infuriated her the most. He'd sworn blind it had stopped, had told both she and Madge a dozen times that it no longer happened - but it had. Surely they could have done something - _anything_ \- to try and stop it. Instead, he'd carried the burden silently. How many bruises had he hidden from her over the last two years?

Peeta sighed, ran a hand through his hair until the blond waves almost stood on end. It did nothing but draw her attention to his eye even more, and she had to fight the urge to wince. "It hardly happened anymore, I promise. And when it did, I just… didn't want you to worry about it," he finally admitted. "You had enough to deal with, what with your mom getting sick and having to look after Prim more, and not being able to go away for college."

"Mom's cancer is in remission, you know that," Katniss said firmly. "And worrying about you is…"

"Is what?"

Katniss felt her heart thud slowly in her chest. "It's…it's just what we do. We look after each other, and worrying about each other is a part of that."

"But I don't want you to have to worry," Peeta said, his hands locking together in his lap. "I can handle it, and in two weeks' time I'll be out of there forever." He looked over at her, through his one good eye while the other one was slowly beginning to swell shut. "Katniss, I'm sorry I snapped at you. I didn't mean to. I'm just…embarrassed."

"Don't. Don't _ever_ apologise and don't ever be embarrassed. It's not your fault. And you are _not_ going home to her this weekend," Katniss said forcefully.

He shifted awkwardly. "I can't just not go home, Katniss."

"Why not? There's no one there for you, hasn't been for a long time. Not since Aaran moved out." She wanted to say that there was no one to protect him there, not like how she could, but she wasn't sure how he'd feel about that. "You should just come stay with me."

"I can't do that either."

"Why not?" She repeated, turning in her seat more so that she was facing him squarely. "Look, if you're worried what Mom and Prim will say about your eye, just tell them you got an elbow to the face while wrestling. We'll tell everyone at the party that too, okay? They don't need to know the truth."

"I didn't want you to know either," he whispered.

"Then you should have lied to me too."

"You wouldn't have believed me."

"I know." She caught his good eye. "I mean, what did you expect, that I'd just let you walk around at the party with those dumb sunglasses on and never ask why?"

His jaw clenched, a muscle in his cheek jumping slightly. "Yes-no…I don't know…I didn't think that far ahead."

Katniss shook her head. "Look, that doesn't matter. Come home with me this weekend, Peeta. I don't want you with that woman one more minute than you need to be. I don't want to give her another chance to hurt you."

"I told you it doesn't happen that often."

"You also told me it didn't happen at all anymore," she pointed out, then sighed. This was not how she'd expected this night to go, but it didn't change the fact that seeing Peeta like this just reminded her how much he meant to her. "We'll sort it out, okay? We'll do something so that she never does it again. I just…"

"Just what?"

She lowered her voice, licked her lips. "I just want to put you somewhere where you won't get hurt," she said quietly.

Peeta didn't say anything at first, and she felt the nerves kick in again. _Had she said something wrong? Was he angry at her? Had she stepped over the line? _

"Katniss?"

Her hands played with the hem of her t-shirt. "Yeah?"

"Look at me." His voice had lost all its heat, all its embarrassment; instead it was filled with something she wasn't entirely sure she recognised. She risked a glance up at him, to see him staring at her intently. Or as intently as he could with one eye.

"Yeah?"

He took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling with the movement below his pale blue button up. "If I tell you something, will you promise you won't get mad at me?"

Her eyebrows drew together in concern. "If it's about your mom, I can only promise that I _will _get mad. Otherwise…I suppose so."

"I mean, it's probably not a good time to say it, considering-"

"_What?_"

"I've been thinking about last weekend. A lot."

Her eyes widened, and she lowered her gaze back to her lap. "Oh." _Oh no. Here it came. Where he tells her he's glad it didn't happen, that they can only ever be just friends. That he's grateful for her support as a friend_.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time. For as long as I can remember. And I've spent the last week cursing Madge for calling you at that very moment."

Her head snapped up in surprise, her mouth dropping open. He was just watching her, doing _absolutely _nothing but watching her silently. Her only indication that he was nervous was his hands - they were still clenched together tightly in his lap, to the point the knuckles were white from stress.

"R-really?"

He nodded slowly. "I was going to tell you tonight, and then this happened-"

"I was going to tell you too," Katniss burst out in a rush, before she could stop herself; she felt lightheaded from the abrupt release of words. "I've been thinking about it all week, but I didn't want to ruin us being friends, but then I figured I had to tell you anyway. But then your _eye_, and your bitch mom who can kiss my-"

"Katniss?"

"Yeah?"

She didn't see it coming, although she supposed she should have. One minute he was on the other side of the car, the next his mouth was on hers, soft and gentle and searching; his hands were in her hair, weaving through the loose strands, and she was leaning into him desperately.

It felt like she'd been waiting forever for this.

Reaching up, her hands clasped his jaw, her fingers sliding up into the unruly waves at the nape of his neck; with the slightest change of angle, the kiss deepened and his tongue dragged across her lips; she thought her heart would leap right out of her chest.

And then he was wincing, pulling away slightly, a flash of pain crossing his face. And she realised that her hands had gripped just that little bit too hard, her palms pressing against the bruising that was creeping down his left cheek.

"Oh shit, Peeta, I'm sorry," she murmured, dancing her fingers lightly over the edge of the bruise, her touch tender and soft as she cupped her hand around his jaw. She watched as his eyelids fluttered closed, as his own hand reached up to clasp hers. Watched the relief and calm cross his face, as he began to relax against her touch.

Eventually his good eye flickered open again, and his voice was soft as he spoke. "Katniss, do you mind if we don't go to the party? If we just turn around and go back to your place? I don't think I'm really in the mood to go. I just…I think I want to spend the night with just you."

Katniss smiled, and she knew she wasn't even capable of hiding the relief in her voice. "Peeta, I can't think of anything I'd rather do," she said quietly, and gently kissed him again.

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_A/N - This week, I'm participating in Prompts in Panem on tumblr, which means there will be a break in my updating of my two wips. But I'll be back to them in no time :) Thank you for reading!  
_


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